John McCain

You are probably wondering why I am writing about John McCain.
The first picture on the left is a plaque commemorating John McCain being shot down on October 26, 1967, and fell into the lake in the background. The lake is called Truc Bach Lake and it happens to be where my apartment is.
I either walk or run past this plaque almost every day. I didn't know about the John McCain connection until more than a month after I have lived here.





Here is another view of the lake.
My apartment is somewhere between the two tall apartments on the left and the tall apartment on the right.










Here is the entrance to Hoa Lo prison, popularly referred to as the "Hanoi Hilton." I don't know why it's called Maison Centrale on the front entrance. The prison is about 3 blocks from my office.
I think most people come here expecting to see a lot about John McCain. Well, there's actually very little mention of John McCain, maybe about 3 or 4 pictures. There is a room devoted to American pilots being imprisoned here during the Vietnam war.



The prison focusses more on Vietnamese insurgents fighting the French in the late 19th and early 20th century. It shows the tough conditions that the Vietnamese prisoners had to endure while they were imprisoned here.
The Vietnamese finally defeated the French at Dien Bien Phu in 1954.
Today, only part of the prison remains and as you can see in the background, most of the old prison is occupied by a tall apartment and office building complex called Hanoi Towers.